Vice President Mike Pence speaks after leading a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services on June 26, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Joshua Roberts | Getty Images
Vice President Mike Pence‘s upcoming campaign events in Arizona and Florida this week have been postponed as both states report a major surge in coronavirus cases.
The campaign appearances are postponed “out of an abundance of caution,” a Trump campaign official told CNBC.
No new dates for the vice president’s “Faith in America” tour, targeted at evangelical voters, have been announced as of yet. Pence will still travel to Texas, Arizona, and Florida this week to meet governors and health-care teams about coronavirus response efforts.
Coronavirus cases are spiking across the country, particularly in Arizona, Florida, Texas and California.
As of Friday, the U.S. seven-day average of new cases went up more than 41% compared with a week ago. The country reported 45,255 additional cases on Friday, bringing the total to more than 2.46 million cases since the start of the outbreak, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Hospitalizations from Covid-19 were growing in 14 states as of Friday, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
Pence at a Friday press briefing boasted about the U.S. flattening the curve, which was true in earlier months but is not the case anymore as cases hit new records in the U.S.
The vice president also claimed that increased testing was generating more cases. However, more testing alone doesn’t account for the spike in new infections, and rather the spread of the virus is causing a rise in reported cases.
Some states, including Texas and Florida, have rolled back re-opening plans for some businesses while other states like Arizona have put re-opening plans on hold.
